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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27168040">Congratulations</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arisa_K/pseuds/Arisa_K'>Arisa_K</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Broken Heart, Dark, Death(s), Did I mention people die?, F/M, I might have been a pyro in a past life, Revenge, Romance, Sexy Time, This is kinda f'ed up, This isn't meant to be taken too seriously, Trauma, Turks do what Turks do, Whumptober 2020, big fire - Freeform</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 01:07:09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,630</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27168040</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arisa_K/pseuds/Arisa_K</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>What would be the end result of a Cloud/TIfa/Reno love triangle? If you ever wondered, here's one scenario for ya.</p><p>Happy Whumptober!</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Cloud Strife/Tifa Lockhart, Tifa Lockhart/Reno</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>17</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Congratulations</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is a Whumptober piece I threw together exploring what might happen if Reno got the raw end of a love triangle deal. Once again, people die. Read at your own risk and don't take this too seriously. Like, at all.</p><p>Okay, enjoy! :) :) :)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Tifa couldn’t help but smile at the glimmer of her ruby engagement ring, reflecting beautifully beneath the low lights of Seventh Heaven. It sparkled and shone as she took to wiping the counter at the nights’ end, her mind roving over the many wondrous days and nights to come. </p><p>It had only been a few days since the proposal, and her belly flipped each time the moment crossed her thoughts. For too long, she desperately clung to the idea that one day, someday, she would accept the title of Mrs. Strife. Finally, that day was formulating as she considered wedding guests, décor, and her dress. But more importantly, she couldn’t wait to stand beside Cloud and take his name.</p><p>A pair of gloved hands slipped around her waist from behind she could only assume to be him, his pelvis firmly pressed to her backside as a pair of lips found the crook of her neck to nuzzle. She melted into the embrace, her fingers clutching the rag as she sighed against his touch. “You shouldn’t sneak up on me like that.”</p><p>“Or what?” He asked, lips catching her skin between his teeth.</p><p>A sharp inhale alerted him that his attentions were well received and he continued onward to the shell of her ear as she answered him. “Or I could have hurt you.”</p><p>As she turned in his arms, peering into his bright Mako eyes, she witnessed the subtle shift within them to something much more salacious. “You think so?”</p><p>She laughed, arms slipping around his neck. “I know so.”</p><p>“That sounds like a challenge,” he countered, his hands taking liberty to splay across her bare back, holding her close.</p><p>It was rare that Cloud found himself so confident, and he displayed such confidence over the past few days since their engagement. It was easy to surmise his new found fearlessness lay within the promise that she would be his alone, but each moment of presented affection became ever more forward. </p><p>“What are you saying, Cloud?” she asked him quietly, lifting up upon the balls of her feet to bring herself closer to his mouth.</p><p>“Do I have to say it?” </p><p>The question wouldn’t be answered as he took her mouth. The kiss was soft and sweet, almost chaste. But as the time pressed on and their hands went to traveling, their kiss deepened with their exploration.</p><p>When his hands reached for her bottom and pulled her further against him, she broke from him and stared into his eyes, her own were dark and glazed with the lust she carried from his attentions. “You want to do this...now?”</p><p>Hesitation crossed his face with her inquiry, but when she trailed her fingers along his cheek, it leaked away. “I do.”</p><p>Tifa considered holding off, taking it slow and waiting until their wedding night. But the children were with Barret, and the desire between them hot enough to reduce metal to liquid. She was hard pressed to find a reason to deny him. </p><p>The smile that came to her lips was a touch coy as she pushed against his hips, accepting his request.</p><p>Before she knew it, she was in his arms and being carried up the steps. She took those precious moments of weightlessness to administer similar treatment to his neck he had previously awarded to only receive a low growl in return. </p><p>Despite his growing outward affection, their intimacy had been sparse since he returned home. Saddled with exhaustion and the lingering feelings of apprehension surrounding the man she turned away to accept his proposal, she was more than grateful to accept every piece of him now. </p><p>Suddenly, her thoughts drifted to Reno; the Turk whose heart she shattered. She felt her own seize with a tinge of regret from the knowledge that the end was always to be this way. And while their love was fast and smoldering, it was also quite fleeting. She felt terrible, but she was also where she was supposed to be, and could only hope that he would find peace some other way.</p><p>Cloud set her gently on the bed and he wasted no time moving above her. Their lips came together as she worked to remove his shirt. He assisted, shrugging out of the garment to expose his taut muscles, scarred from battle after battle. Each raised white mar told a tale of survival, and she traced the pads of her fingers along so many of them. She only broke from her hypnosis when he pulled her out of her own clothing, tugging away at her shorts and panties in one foul swoop.</p><p>When he buried his face between her thighs, she arched and moaned to his ministrations, spreading wide to provide better access to her most tender depth. He perhaps wasn’t as adept as her previous lover, but their connection was far deeper than any other, and the emotion behind each caress and flick of his tongue made up for any failure to make her scream his name through sheer experience.</p><p>Patience was not in the cards, and Cloud rose upright and reached for his buckle. Suddenly he stilled, taking in a deep inhale of the air like a hound.</p><p>Tifa, still within a languid, lustful daze, raised herself upon her elbows to look at him with curiosity, “What’s wrong?”</p><p>“Do you smell that?”</p><p>She breathed in the air, and was immediately met with the scent of something burning. The aroma was fairly strong, much to her surprise. Far too late in the night for a neighborhood barbecue, she pondered the source. “It smells like smoke.”</p><p>Tifa watched him leave the bed to hang out through the doorway and into the hall. He immediately pulled back and frowned. “Tifa, I think it’s close. Come on.”</p><p>Slipping her panties and shorts back over her hips, she joined him in the doorway, gripping his hand as they trekked down the hall.</p><p>They were further greeted by thickening black smoke, and they each threw a hand over their nose and mouth to guard against the acrid air. Once they reached the bottom, their eyes stinging from the atmosphere, it didn’t take long for them to hear the crackle of the flames that licked against the walls of Seventh Heaven. The bright red inferno was tearing through the bottom floor with fury, consuming chairs and tables and everything within its path.</p><p>Tifa felt her chest constrict, her breathing narrow as the flames danced and taunted her. Cloud was yelling, pulling her back up, but her legs were concrete beneath her. She heard screams, those not of the living but from a past she long thought she’d never relive again.</p><p>Half dragged, Cloud pulled her along, reaching the top of the landing and barreled down the hall. Curving their path back into their bedroom, he released her to move toward the window only for glass shards to explode and shatter across the floor. The bottle that created the jagged hole struck the ground and lit the rug in its orange rage, spilling over the length of the space between him and their escape.</p><p>Tifa knew the scream was hers this time as he rushed away from the fire eating everything in sight. Pushed from the sweltering heat, they crossed the hall into the children's room, only to find it too was covered in flames. Their final route to flee, Cloud’s office, was equally barricaded by the traveling blaze.</p><p>Panic was taking her over, her body trembling as the smoke filled her lungs and set her off, coughing and gasping for air. The world was blurred and hazy as she heard Cloud but was unable to decipher his words. Lips moved with no sound as the beat of her pulse deafened her to everything else.</p><p>Again, she was carried back down the steps by her hand, feet pounding against the ground of their own volition, her body willing to survive despite her broken mind. Once they reached the ground, the flames had nearly overtaken the bar, swallowing her home, her business, her life and reducing it to ash.</p><p>The world around her began to fade, darkness falling over her eyes like a weighted blanket. Beneath her, the floor rose and struck her knees, palms crashing against the wooden planks. The heat seared her skin, the choking cough incapacitating her. </p><p>The last thing she saw was her love, Cloud Strife, collapse beside her, calling her name between his own fits of gasping for life.</p><p>The last sound she heard was her heart breaking.</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>The conflagration of Seventh Heaven roared into the sky, its billowing black fog obscuring the generous moonlight that bathed the city of Edge. People poured from their homes to witness the building crumble upon itself, screams and cries for someone, anyone to do <em> something </em>. But as the business and home in one met its untimely end, there was nothing that could be done, the establishment now resembling an oversized pyre. Such a tragedy, the residents would say. What an awful thing to happen to two wonderful people. They didn’t deserve this.</p><p>People also tend to say ‘Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned’, but as Reno lit the cigarette between his lips, his azure eyes reflecting the dual flames of the building and his match, he knew they simply didn’t know what a Turk with a broken heart was capable of.</p><p>“Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Strife,” he muttered into the wind, flaming orange embers carried off to join the raging wildfire ahead. He turned on his heel then, walking off into the night with a self-satisfied grin.</p><p>In the distance, the remains of Seventh Heaven crackled and crumbled beneath the flames as an arctic frost filled the space where his heart used to be.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Just so we are clear, I actually wrote this for two reasons. One, I wanted to show how much of a ruthless asshole Reno can be. And two, I wanted to see if I had the stomach to kill beloved characters that I have adored since 1997. Turns out I was able to do both.</p><p>This isn't a CloTi hate piece--I love Cloti. However, I like to challenge myself when it comes to writing so I gravitate toward unconventional things.  </p><p>In conclusion, this is just a story, a piece of fiction. Love or hate it, it ain't meant to do nothing more than entertain.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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